The recent report by the 2018 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that showed the Philippines scored lowest among 79 countries in reading comprehension, and second to last in both math and science, should wake us up to the realization that our longtime boast that the country has one of the highest literacy rates in the world has just become an urban myth.
The study was conducted under the OECD’s 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which examined students’ knowledge in reading, mathematics and science.
In reading, the main subject assessed among 15-year-old students, the Philippines had an average reading score of 340, more than 200 points below China (555) and more than 100 points less than the OECD average (487). Both boys’ and girls’ performances in reading ranked lowest among PISA-participating countries.
“Reading proficiency is essential for a wide variety of human activities – from following instructions in a manual; to finding out the who, what, when, where, and why of an event; to communicating with others for a specific purpose or transaction,” the summary of the PISA 2018 results reads.
The Philippines placed the second-lowest in mathematics (353), along with Panama, and science (357). Only the Dominican Republic scored lower in these categories. China also led both categories.
Although we have always prided ourselves to have some of the best educated students in the world, it still came as no surprise that our students would fare low in the OECD assessment. What came as a surprise was that we were at the bottom of the ladder in all categories.
For decades, public school teachers have been complaining of lack of support from the government. They have been asking for salary increases but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears, especially in this administration which would rather give hefty pay increases and benefits to soldiers and policemen but nothing for teachers. Even the teachers’ pay for services rendered during election time, during which they spend long hours and risk their lives and limbs, are often delayed.
For wages that could hardly meet their families’ needs, teachers have to wake up early in the morning to be in school before the students arrive and stay late at night preparing the next day’s lesson plan, checking test papers and homework, and bear the responsibility of parents during school hours. On top of that, some teachers in the rural areas have to buy their own school supplies and some have to provide their poor students with paper and pencils.
Many students in the rural areas have to walk long distances on empty stomachs and attend classes the whole day still on empty stomachs, and walk long distances for home, on even emptier stomachs. This also applies to some public school students in the urban areas, many of whom can’t even afford to buy basic school supplies and books, let alone have enough “baon” to survive the day.
The government can only do so much to provide decent free education to the millions of students, but hopefully it can at least give teachers a decent pay and schools a decent budget.
Educating the youth is paramount to a country hoping to get out of poverty. China did not get to where it is now just because it had hundreds of millions of workers willing to work for crumbs, but also because it gave importance to educating its future workers as shown by the OECD assessment where its students topped all categories.
But, as I said, the cash-strapped Philippine government cannot do it alone. This is where overseas Filipino individuals and organizations can come in. For example, I know of one retired Filipino who invested a big bulk of his retirement money to provide monthly allowances to poor students of Cavite Provincial High School in Cavite City. Abelardo Estacion, who experienced first hand the difficulty of studying on an empty stomach as a young student in Cavite, helped many poor Cavite high school students graduate with flying colors and even supported some of them through college.
I attended one of the graduation ceremonies of these Estacion scholars, and I heard and saw first hand how grateful they were for the help. Some of them were the first to graduate in the family because many of their siblings had to drop out to work and help support their families. Unfortunately, Estacion died suddenly a few years ago and the scholarships had to stop.
Just recently, a couple in Los Angeles heard about the problems of a vocational high school in the seaside town of Villaba, Leyte, one of many schools in the province destroyed by typhoon Haiyan. For years, the teachers and students had to conduct their classes in the heavily damaged school building. When it rains, the students had to cramp in one corner where the rains do not drip because the school had to make do with the galvanized roof destroyed by the typhoon. The typhoon also left them without books or computer in the library.
Upon hearing of the problem, community leaders Noel and Mary Ann Omega immediately went to work. With the help of their friends from the Filipino-American Chambers of Commerce, they raised funds to add to their own hefty contribution to help rebuild the school. Noel is from Leyte and his late father donated the land where the school was built.
The World One Institute Foundation, headed by Dr. Yolanda Stern, helped and the school building was completed in 2014 with new classrooms and a roof that didn’t leak. The Omegas donated money again in 2017 that was matched by the Capital Group Foundation for the rebuilding and re-furnishing of the school library and the construction of a His and Hers bathroom with flushing toilets.
Filipino organizations in the United States and all over the world can duplicate the work done by Estacion and the Omega couple, adopting a school in the Philippines to help the students and teachers have a better learning environment. If each of these tens of thousands of Filipino organizations in the US and all over the world adopt one school each, perhaps in a few years, the Philippines will be on top of the OECD student assessment, instead of at the bottom.
Mr. Abelgas is a former managing editor of Manila Standard.